Re: [gentoo-nfp] You need to pay them

[David Abbott]

On Thu, Apr 12, 2018 at 3:23 AM, Daniel Robbins <drobbins@××××××.org> wrote:
> Hi Everyone,
>
> I'd like to propose that people consider having a couple of paid Foundation
> positions. Yes, I know what some of you are thinking. Blasphemy, right?
> Well, if you want people to run the Foundation and stay on top of finances,
> paperwork, etc, it takes a lot of time. If people devote a lot of time to
> the Foundation, it takes time away from their day that they would otherwise
> spend earning money.
>
> So without some modest compensation, trustees can only make a 'best effort'
> and they can't really guarantee a certain amount of hours to trustee duties
> per week. And we know from experience that that results in. That is just
> reality and will exist in any not-for-profit... ultimately most people use
> their time to make money, so if you want their ongoing assistance in the
> form of time -- for free -- they will lose money from their generosity, and
> this will be hard to sustain, regardless of the goodness of their
> intentions.
>
> But isn't that illegal!??!?!
>
> Absolutely not! It is perfectly legal for a not-for-profit to pay salaries.
> If you have ever donated to the Wikipedia Foundation (aka. Jimmy Wales
> beg-a-thon), you are giving them funds so they can have offices in San
> Francisco, computers, servers, desks, employees with regular salaries,
> benefits, paid time off, health care, retirement, etc. Yes, quite lovely,
> and nothing at the level we would offer our trustees -- I'm just making the
> point that not-for-profits are not vows of poverty. The organization itself
> isn't supposed to make a profit, but there can be expenses associated with
> running the organization and pursuing its mission.
>
> Isn't that against the bylaws!?!?
>
> Yes, a provision was added to the bylaws after the creation of the
> Foundation to prevent trustees from being financially compensated, with the
> expectation that the trustees would hire paid officers to do a lot of the
> heavy work of running the Foundation. In reality, the trustees don't even
> have enough time to find the right people to help with the work, so this
> isn't working well in practice. I would propose a modification to the bylaws
> to allow a modest compensation for the President and Secretary, to
> compensate for time. This amount could be equivalent to a fraction of a
> typical full-time salary in the country of residence of the trustee, but is
> at least *something* to compensate for loss of contracting/consulting
> opportunities due to time devoted to taking care of Foundation business.
>
> Won't we use up the Foundation money?!!
>
> I would argue that the Foundation money is there to run the Foundation
> properly. We have had ongoing issues with trustees being able to devote
> necessary time to the Foundation. I would argue that this is not because
> these people are jerks but because the reality of life is such that it is
> hard to make a sustained large donation of time without financial
> compensation unless you happen to be independently wealthy, and few of us
> are.
>
> What about the future?
>
> In the early years of the Foundation, I think Gentoo developers were overly
> concerned about Gentoo being "bought" or people "profiting from" Gentoo. In
> reality, money used wisely and managed properly with appropriate
> transparency and accountability allows things to get done, people to devote
> time to thorny problems, organizations to be well-managed, etc.
>
> How much to pay them?
>
> I would suggest something like 1/2 to 2/3rds of the mean wage of the country
> the trustee lives in, with some kind of cap. That way it is not a full-time
> salary, and quite a bit less than typical technology work, but still
> something significant enough so it can help pay for maybe a solid 10 hours
> per week of time spent running the Foundation. I believe this is necessary
> to keep everything in good standing. Not all positions need to be paid but I
> think we should have at least the President and Secretary have modest
> compensation. And then the members can expect a higher level of commitment
> from these positions, since it is no longer a purely volunteer "when you can
> find time" position.
>
> Is this sustainable?
>
> I would say, yes, very much so. And as the Foundation starts getting on top
> of things and then actively looking at how to improve itself, there are
> plenty of opportunities to actually turn the Foundation into a resource for
> Gentoo rather than a liability.
>
> For example, many not-for-profits have people who are devoted to fund
> raising for their foundation, and these people get paid a percentage of the
> donations they solicit from companies -- no salary -- they get paid based on
> how much money they bring in. So if a person were to arrange for
> organizations to donate $500,000 in a given year, maybe they would get 10%
> of this as their compensation. This way it costs the Foundation nothing to
> launch fund raising and grant application efforts. There are people who are
> quite good at this and do this as their profession. Then the Foundation
> stops being an ongoing "issue" and starts to turn into a tremendous resource
> to help Gentoo grow and expand. This can all be done ethically while all the
> while maintaining not-for-profit status.
>
> I would like everyone to think about this, especially if you have been
> disappointed by the historical performance of the Gentoo trustees. I think
> that we simply need to be realistic and understand the realities of modern
> life.
>
> Best,
>
> Daniel

Hi Daniel,
Our first priority needs to be getting a paid accountant /CPA.
We are currently accepting proposals and I hope we have someone soon.
I project the budget to be between 10K and 20K but I am not sure
because we have not had any offers.
Our income is between 5K and 25K most years depending on Google SOC
and large donations.
Regards,

-- 
David Abbott (dabbott)
Gentoo Foundation Secretary
http://dev.gentoo.org/~dabbott/